Department of Hepatic Surgery, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Liver Disease Research, Guangzhou, China.
Cell Death Dis. 2018 Apr 1;9(4):422. doi: 10.1038/s41419-018-0458-4.
Emerging evidence indicate that cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) affect tumor progression by reshaping the tumor microenvironment. Neutrophils are prominent components of solid tumors and important in cancer progression. Whether the phenotype and function of neutrophils in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are influenced by CAFs is not well understood. Herein, we investigated the effect of HCC-derived CAFs (HCC-CAFs) on the neutrophils and explored the biological role of this effect. We found that HCC-CAFs induced chemotaxis of neutrophils and protected them from spontaneous apoptosis. Neutrophils were activated by the conditioned medium from HCC-CAFs with increased expression of CD66b, PDL1, IL8, TNFa, and CCL2, and with decreased expression of CD62L. HCC-CAF-primed neutrophils impaired T-cell function through the PD1/PDL1 signaling pathway. We revealed that HCC-CAFs induced the activation of STAT3 pathways in neutrophils, which are essential for the survival and function of activated neutrophils. In addition, we demonstrated that HCC-CAF-derived IL6 was responsible for the STAT3 activation of neutrophils. Collectively, our results suggest that HCC-CAFs regulate the survival, activation, and function of neutrophils within HCC through an IL6-STAT3-PDL1 signaling cascade, which presents a novel mechanism for the role of CAFs in remodeling the cancer niche and provides a potential target for HCC therapy.
新出现的证据表明,癌症相关成纤维细胞(CAFs)通过重塑肿瘤微环境影响肿瘤进展。中性粒细胞是实体瘤的主要组成部分,在癌症进展中很重要。肝癌(HCC)来源的 CAFs(HCC-CAFs)是否影响中性粒细胞的表型和功能尚不清楚。在此,我们研究了 HCC-CAFs 对中性粒细胞的影响,并探讨了这种影响的生物学作用。我们发现 HCC-CAFs 诱导中性粒细胞的趋化,并保护其免受自发凋亡。来自 HCC-CAFs 的条件培养基激活中性粒细胞,增加 CD66b、PDL1、IL8、TNFa 和 CCL2 的表达,降低 CD62L 的表达。HCC-CAF 预激活的中性粒细胞通过 PD1/PDL1 信号通路损害 T 细胞功能。我们揭示了 HCC-CAFs 诱导中性粒细胞中 STAT3 途径的激活,这对于激活的中性粒细胞的存活和功能是必不可少的。此外,我们证明 HCC-CAF 衍生的 IL6 负责中性粒细胞的 STAT3 激活。总之,我们的结果表明,HCC-CAFs 通过 IL6-STAT3-PDL1 信号级联调节 HCC 内中性粒细胞的存活、激活和功能,这为 CAFs 在重塑肿瘤微环境中的作用提供了一个新的机制,并为 HCC 治疗提供了一个潜在的靶点。
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